Now that it's autumn, it's easy to walk through the undiscovered country again. Look how beautiful it is in this picture

There are some more photos of the undiscovered country

at my flickr account; some of them are duplicates of the ones posted here, though, like this one of some turtleheads blooming by the stream

There are whole mushroom worlds sprouting up in the woods, whole cities and outposts. Some are really big, some are tiny and thin. Some are wickedly poisonous, like the destroying angel. I think I found one of those. And the gorgeous big bolete I found, I suspect it's poisonous too-I think it's a "boletus satanas"! Pretty scary :-) See below

(above is what I suspect to be a destroying angel--deadly white. these are the sort of mushrooms that make you need a liver transplant (if my ID is right)

(above is a fairy tale mushroom)

(above is what I think maybe a satanic bolete)

(and a friendly mushroom colony, above)

And here is the largest puffball we've found so far this year--I sliced it like bread!

A puffball is a big fungus. It's all puffy in the center--kind of like the outside of a marshmallow (not like the inside of a marshmallow, because the inside of a marshmallow is sticky, but a puffball isn't.)

It's very mild flavored and very nice if you cook it with some garlic or leeks or something. Puffballs can get really large.

Gah--jackolanterns, huh? I poisoned us with those once. In fact, in the place where I gathered the mushrooms that I poisoned us with two years ago--there are some growing again this year. Looking just as lovely as ever. (And they even TASTED good--but not worth it three hours later when we were all vomiting...)

well, that's why I only gather puffballs and chicken of the woods now. The only two I can be sure of.